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Overview

Through the Lens of Israel: Explorations in State and Society by Joel S. Migdal

Essays on the formation of Israeli state and society during the twentieth century.

Through the Lens of Israel illuminates Israeli history through the use of the author’s unique state-in-society approach, and, at the same time, refines, develops, and expands that approach. The book provides a window for the formation of Israeli state and society during the twentieth century, while using the Israeli experience to ask how social scientists can better investigate and understand other societies as well. Three central themes of Israeli history are at the core of the analysisstate formation, society formation, and the mutually constitutive roles of state and society. By analyzing how Israel’s state and society continually reconstruct one another, Migdal addresses larger questions with resonance far beyond Israel: How do particular societies and states end up with their distinctive character? How are the rules that shape everyday behavior determined? Who gains from these rules and who loses? And how and when do these rules and patterns of privilege change?

Product Details

About the Author

Joel S. Migdal is Robert F. Philip Professor of International Studies at the University of Washington. His most recent work includes State Power and Social Forces: Domination and Transformation in the Third World (coedited with Atul Kohli and Vivienne Shue).

Read an Excerpt

Joel S. Migdal is Robert F. Philip Professor of International Studies at the University of Washington. His most recent work includes State Power and Social Forces: Domination and Transformation in the Third World (coedited with Atul Kohli and Vivienne Shue).

First Chapter

Joel S. Migdal is Robert F. Philip Professor of International Studies at the University of Washington. His most recent work includes State Power and Social Forces: Domination and Transformation in the Third World (coedited with Atul Kohli and Vivienne Shue).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

ix

Part I

Introduction

Chapter 1

Myths and Models: The State-in-Society Approach and the Experience of Israel

3

Part II

State Making

Chapter 2

The Crystallization of the State and the Struggles over Rule Making: Israel in Comparative Perspective

25

Chapter 3

Laying the Basis for a Strong State: The British and Zionists in Palestine

51

Chapter 4

Vision and Practice: The Leader, the State, and the Transformation of Society

Editorial Reviews

Illuminates Israeli history through a unique state-in-society approach, using the Israeli experience to ask how social scientists can better investigate and understand other societies. Three central themes are at the core of this analysis: state formation, society formation, and the mutually constitutive roles of state and society. Asks how particular societies and states end up with their distinctive character, how the rules that shape everyday behavior are determined, and how and when patterns of privilege change. Migdal teaches international studies at the University of Washington. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

“This is one of the most original and important books on Israel in yearsa rare work of first-class scholarship that is so well written it can be read with profit by the educated reader, students, and scholars.”  Myron J. Aronoff, author of Power and Ritual in the Israel Labor Party: A Study in Political Anthropology